8th Grade Teaching Materials for NGSS

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My Dragon

Today, students continued our brief review of genetics and DNA. They used the random code (made of guanine, cytosine, adenine, and thymine) that they generated on Friday to build a dragon. The genetic code dictated the dragon’s size, color, and attitude, and also determined whether it had wings or a clubbed or spiked tail. Of course, in real life, the DNA strip would be much longer and the decoding process would be much more complex. But the essence of the process is the much the same. Tomorrow, we will choose partners to mate with.